Ibis fountain

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Ibis fountain (restored in 2012)
Piazza d'Azeglio
Florence, January 2023

“The area around the current Piazza d'Azeglio was expropriated and divided into lots within a regular mesh, lots that were purchased by wealthy bourgeois families and senior state officials, becoming the most modern and exclusive neighborhood in the center. In fact, a characteristic of the square is that all the buildings around it are luxurious buildings and villas of a high architectural level. A cosmopolitan environment was formed, frequented by politicians, intellectuals, artists and musicians who lived or were hosted here and crowded the salons where the ‘important’ public opinion was formed at the time. The name of the square sums up its destiny: the Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio (1798 - 1866) was an important politician, writer, poet and painter. The area was structured in lawns, a hexagonal fountain with a statue of an ibis, patches of plane trees and hackberry (wood from which the whips were then made!), boxwood and laurel hedges. Until 1940, the square was actually ‘private’ because it was surrounded by a high gate of which only the owners of the buildings around had the keys and could use it.” (Piazza Massimo d'Azeglio, Arte Leonardo)